The Two Faces of Alfred Hitchcock
The Two Faces of Alfred Hitchcock Hitchcock (2012) Dir. Sacha Gervasi The Girl (2012) Dir. Julian Jarrold --- Please note that these reviews contain discussion of major plot points of both films and so should be considered spoiler heavy. --- Alfred Hitchcock was notoriously difficult with women. The sound tests he made with Anny Ondra for the 1929 film Blackmail see him quizzing her about her sex life. Just under a decade later, he maximised discomfort for Madeleine Carroll on The 39 Steps by handcuffing her to co-star Robert Donat. Such incidents were presented as part of Hitchcock’s playful nature; they fit with the man known for directing such suspenseful pictures with tongue firmly in cheek. When Hitch decamped to Hollywood in 1940 he was already an international star, and the studio system wanted some of that glory for themselves. He made three pictures with super-producer David O. Selznick, and Selznick kept loaning him out to oth...